22 Facts About Plastic Pollution (And 10 Things We Can Do About It)

It seems nearly impossible to escape plastic in our every day lives, doesn’t it?

And we can’t escape plastic pollution, either.

Plastic is literally at my fingertips all day long. Plastic keyboard. Plastic framed computer monitor. Plastic mouse. The amount of plastic I encounter daily doesn’t end there. Chances are, you can relate. Plastic is an epidemic.

But where does all this plastic go? We ship some of it overseas to be recycled. Quite a bit ends up in landfills. And more than you can imagine ends up on the loose as plastic pollution, eventually making its way into our waterways.

Tiny plastic beads used in hundreds of toiletries like facial scrubs and toothpastes have even been found in our Great Lakes—the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world! Giant garbage patches (one twice the size of Texas) can be found floating around in the oceans. And all this plastic pollution is not only a problem for the earth, it’s bad for our health.

Green Diva Meg and I chatted about the plastic in our oceans on the recent Green Divas myEARTH360 Report podcast, which inspired me to uncover more facts about plastic in all of our lives and how it ends up in our precious water. Have a listen:

Annually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. More than one million bags are used every minute.

46 percent of plastics float (EPA 2006) and it can drift for years before eventually concentrating in the ocean gyres.

It takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to degrade.

Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences in the oceans making up about 40 percent of the world’s ocean surfaces. 80 percent of pollution enters the ocean from the land.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located in the North Pacific Gyre off the coast of California and is the largest ocean garbage site in the world. This floating mass of plastic is twice the size of Texas, with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life six to one.

Plastic constitutes approximately 90 percent of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.

One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.

44 percent of all seabird species, 22 percent of cetaceans, all sea turtle species and a growing list of fish species have been documented with plastic in or around their bodies.

In samples collected in Lake Erie, 85 percent of the plastic particles were smaller than two-tenths of an inch, and much of that was microscopic. Researchers found 1,500 and 1.7 million of these particles per square mile.

Virtually every piece of plastic that was ever made still exists in some shape or form (with the exception of the small amount that has been incinerated).

Reduce everyday plastics such as sandwich bags and juice cartons by replacing them with a reusable lunch bag/box that includes a thermos.

Bring your to-go mug with you to the coffee shop, smoothie shop or restaurants that let you use them, which is a great way to reduce lids, plastic cups and/or plastic-lined cups.

Go digital! No need for plastic cds, dvds and jewel cases when you can buy your music and videos online.

Seek out alternatives to the plastic items that you rely on.

Recycle. If you must use plastic, try to choose #1 (PETE) or #2 (HDPE), which are the most commonly recycled plastics. Avoid plastic bags and polystyrene foam as both typically have very low recycling rates.

Comments

manatee74

I would like a pdf version of this so I can post on bulletin board of my apartment complex.

Stephen Baker

Don’t quite agree with the idea that we shouldn’t use plant-based plastic alternatives just because there are a food source (cow corn is not human food and cows should be eating grass anyway). The biodegradability of these products, especially in marine environments, is a huge positive in our quest to protect the oceans from plastic pollution.

frigate

11. Stop recycling plastic for free. It only encourages plastic manufacturers to make more plastic containers and does nothing to motivate them to use compostable and reusable containers.

I’m very curious if my toothpaste or body products have extra plastics tucked in them that I’m unaware of as per the piece above…..I will have to check into it – if you click on the tiny plastic beads hyberlink it does give you some ideas as to how you can figure out if your product is plastic bead free…

Tiny plastic beads used in hundreds of toiletries like facial scrubs and toothpastes have even been found in our Great Lakes—the
largest group of freshwater lakes in the world! Giant garbage patches
(one twice the size of Texas) can be found floating around in the
oceans. And all this plastic pollution is not only a problem for the
earth, it’s bad for our health.

Tally Woomer

I made the switch for my family. Now we only drink Kangen water – we generate our own alkaline, oxygenated, hydrating, antioxidant water for pennies a day. Just like these celebs, we are taking charge of our health and we no longer contribute to bottled water pollution. You can see a demo here –> http://www.healthsuccesscenter.net/tallyw/ use password: purplewater

Stopfoodtax smith

This is soooo wrong. Where do I begin. Only 11 percent goes from the market to the trash. Rest are reused. The reusable bag has a larger footprint and you have to use it over 131 times to equal one plastic bag. The solution is recycling. Why the heck are they sending these bags overseas when we have recycling centers? One city in Wisconsin sends its bags to Trex in order to be made into decks. Each take 140000 bags per deck. One city in Ca sends its bags to be recycled back to a bag. Closed loop. A sixteen year old boy as a science project found a microbe that can eat a bag in 3 months. The so called garbage patch is microscopic, but shouldn’t be there. Another 19 year old has come up with a way to get rid of that plastic in 10 years from the ocean. That’s a solution. This is just a way for corporate retailers to make billions of money on, no longer supplying bags, increasing garbage bag purchases, and reusable bag purchases as well as getting a “fee.” Lots of bucks there that they get to keep free and clear.
You must agree that we need to still recycle garment bags and shrink wrap plus other bags still out there. So you would think they would keep the bins in the store. Dallas Krogers have now removed all those bins. Why? because people were reusing the bags. Open your eyes people. This is the wrong direction. As well as this bag only makes less than 1 percent of the litter out there, thereby making no real difference. Lets come up with ways to recycle and make a real difference with a real solution.

WENDY

IF THE PLASTIC IS BROKEN DOWN TO ITS ORIGIN THEN WHY WOULD IT STILL BE A THREAT . IT DIDN’T COME FROM OUTER SPACE . I’VE LEFT A PLASTIC GROCERY BAG OUTSIDE AND WITHIN A FEW MONTHS IT’S GONE .IF YOU WANT TO GET RID OF PLASTIC PUT IT IN THE SUN SHINE IT ISN’T LASTING 500 YEARS DID THEY EVEN HAVE IT 500 YEARS AGO WHERE DO THESE FACTS COME FROM?

Elisa

Ehm…. the fact that you do not see the bag anymore it does not mean that it is “gone”… have a look at the film “inside the garbage of the world” (you can watch it for free in youtube) to better understand what I mean..

WENDY

I’M NOT SAYING THAT WE SHOULDN’T RECYCLE .. PEOPLE NEED TO RECYCLE EVERYTHING.I BELIEVE THAT THIS IS ONE WORLD AND WE ALL NEED TO CONSERVE.

Sam

I have been trying to ban plastic and if I do use plastic I try to remember to recycle it since we not only are going through a global water crisis due to all the trash in our oceans, so much water, oil, and pollution is used just to make one water bottle. I got an email awhile ago from my sustainable water pitcher filter (Drink Soma, highly recommend it!) that sent out a fun infographic on all the pollution plastic creates and it is just one more reason why I try not to use plastic. If your interested in checking out their infographic search drinksoma.com /ditch the plastic